“So what made you come all the way out here?”

That question, or any variation of that, is one of the top two questions I’ve most often been asked throughout my college life (the other question being: “Why do you have so many hats?”) I’ve only been at the University of Hartford for what will now be two semesters, but I’ve been asked that question by almost every single person that has learned I am from Hawai’i.

Usually, I just shrug my shoulders, laugh, tell the person that I always get asked that question and that I don’t really know what the answer is.

But, I do know why. I just don’t say it because it’s boring and takes too long to explain.

If I could sum it up to as basic as one word, it’s: “Google.”

For my first two years of college, I went to a university in Oregon and I always knew I would transfer out of there because I chose not to enjoy it there.

Back in high school, I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, or what college I wanted to go to.

I did know that I wanted to do something video-related.

I only applied to a few schools and ended up going to the school I chose since a lot of students from Hawai’i go there and also because my older brother had graduated from there.

However, that school did help steer me toward the field of journalism and helped me decide what I wanted to pursue.

Since I wanted to transfer and I wanted to do something that combines video and journalism, I figured that I should go somewhere where I can get a good internship.

I decided I mine as well shoot for the top, so I Google’d ESPN internships and found the University of Hartford.

If there’s anything to take away from this, it’s that college is what you make of it.

I didn’t enjoy my first college because I never really wanted to be there.

I’ve seen many students here with complaints about the University of Hartford.

Ranging from tuition being too high, to how meal swipes work and even to the ridiculous of the salt being used on walkways to melt snow making the campus look “ugly.”

I will admit that I was a little disappointed with the campus life here and the school spirit, especially since we are a Division I athletics school.

Maybe it wasn’t everything that I thought it would be and I can’t just run away from that by transferring again.

That would cost too much time and money.

It just made me realize that college is what you make of it, and if there’s something you don’t like about it, that’s just another opportunity for someone to do something and make change happen.

If you don’t like it here, then transfer out.

Being an undergraduate only lasts about four years.

So if you don’t want to be here, it doesn’t make sense to stay here.

But if you chose to come here and made the University of Hartford the school that you want to graduate from, then it’s up to us to make it how we want it to be.